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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (April 18, 2012)
sportiani» (Dbscruer Page 14 A p ril 18. 2012 The Myth of Black Children Failing School Parent's Corner by R on H erndon N ew s Flash! P o rtla n d ’s p re dominantly black Woodlawn School has its fifth grade black students outperforming average white Port land Public School students in math; and also outperforming average white students statewide. This was not a misprint. In 1996, W oodlawn’s fifth-grade students outperformed students in schools throughout the state in mathemat ics, scoring 12 points higher than the state average. The next year, the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory documented the school’s success by printing the following dialogue LORI GOT A JOB AT PCC’S Tuesday, April 24, 2012 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Come network with 50 local employers at this free event! Cascade Campus Gym 705 N. Killingsworth St. Portland, OR 97217 FREE WORKSHOP Job Searching with Social Media for Dummies With author Joshua Waldman 10:30 a.m., Auditorium Moriarty Arts & Humanities Bldg. Special thanks to our sponsors: *^3 BROOKS STAFFING A o» 5. örocAi & AtKXiOtoi. kx. www.pcc.edu/cascadejobfair Oregon Live.com Portland Community College THE LAW OFFICES OF Patrick John Sweeney, PC. Patrick John Sweeney Attorney at Law 1549 SE Ladd Portland, Oregon Portland: Hillsoboro: Facsimile: Email: (503) 244-2080 (503) 244-2081 (503) 244-2084 Sweeney@PDXLawyer.com between teacher and students in an article, Science and Mathematics for All Students: 1. "Latasha, w hat’s another way o f sa y in g 20 o n e -h u n d r e d th s? " “Two-tenths!” "R ight." 2. "Matthew, is 15 composite or prime? How do you know?" “Composite, because 15 breaks up into threes and fives, not just ones.” "G ood." 3. "Melody, w hat’s a rhombus?" “It’s a parallelogram, with equal sides.” For the past 11 years, Jan Gillespie has been the mathematics specialist at Woodlawn, nine years of that time under the leadership of Princi pal Linda Harris. Both wom en are leaders in Oregon's education circles. Their professional achievements are the fruits of a shared philosophy that all children can achieve higher stan dards. W o o d la w n ’s stu d e n ts have proved this point. M ost o f the school’s 525 students are from work ing-class African-American families and are receiving school lunch as sistance. Contrary to the perceived link between poverty and low achieve ment, W oodlawn’s students have scored high in state and district mathematics tests in recent years. Harris gives much of the credit to G ille sp ie, who co -a u th o red a “hands-on/ minds-on” mathemat- ics program. “Disadvantaged kids can do well if given appropriate instruction, and if you believe they can do it,” Harris says. Harris also has high expectations for her teachers. Each spring, they work together to identify goals for the coming year and to schedule teacher training to help teachers achieve those goals. H arris’ own words describe Gillespie’s approach to mathemat ics, which includes an emphasis on problem solving, reasoning, col laboration, visual, m ental, and hands-on experiences. "Daily bulletin board math dis cussions, which teach basic com putation skills through record keeping, are combined with activi ties and partner games. Each day, students and teachers update data on the board and discuss the new mathematical relationships which appear. Thus, students at every grade level analyze data, perceive patterns, explore m athem atical relationships, and communicate their thinking. Gillespie and the other teachers are careful to use fu ll and accurate sentences when explaining an al gorithm or a grouping concept, teaching students to use language as a bridgefrom concrete examples to abstract ideas. There are after-school activities that reinforce the curriculum, such as Math Club and Hands-On Sci ence night. Parents can check out math videos from the library and are invited to attend fam ily math e m a tic s a n d sc ie n c e n ig h ts throughout the year, as well as a monthly fam ily fu n night. The pow er o f these strategies, combined with good teaching, can spell the difference between lifting struggling students up, so that they can reach their higher potential, a n d lea v in g them to m u d d le through, or drop out, on their own. All children can achieve i f you provide them with a safe and nur turing environment that includes a high level o f expertise among your teachers," Harris said. I strongly encourage all readers to Google this myth shattering docu ment. Mercy me, fifth grade black children achieving at grade level in math, and outscoring the majority of white children in Oregon. The nagging question for those who were on the Portland School Board during that time is, why didn’t you give Ms. Harris and Ms. Gillespie the authority to replicate these gains throughout the system? Now, the question posed for all the newfound education reformers in Oregon who continually mouth platitudes about the achievement gap is who on your committees has ever had black children achieving at grade level? Ron Herndon is a longtime ad vocate fo r educational opportuni tiesfor African-American children. He has served as director o f Head Start in Portland since 1975. Writing from the Heart St. Mary’s students earn honors Two St. Mary's Academy students have received writing awards from the Garaventa Center for Catholic Intellectual Life and Ameri can Culture at the University of Portland. This year's essay topic was "The Geogra phy of Hope," and St. Mary's Academy junior Catherine Murphy took first place. Junior Tara Johnson received an honorable men I W AAL ■ I* ; W ill tion. "The judging committee was very im Tara Johnson Catherine Murphy pressed that both Catherine and Tara did not write careful papers designed to please a teacher, or For her essay, Johnson, 16, delved into social justice merely to address the topic of hope in an academic issues she observed when visiting India, where her sense, but wrote from the heart, wrote with verve and mother is from. commitment,” said Rev. Jim Lies, executive director of "It means a lot to me that the things I write about that the Garaventa Center. I really care about resonate with other people," Johnson Murphy, 16, was adopted from China when she was said. a one year old. For her essay, she wrote about a trip she The fact that they were writing about topics and took in the summer of 2010 to visit the orphanage and places so deeply important to them helped infuse their foster home where she stayed during her first year of life. essays with spirit and authenticity, said Sara Salvi, "It was very eye-opening," she said. "To go back chairwoman of the English Department at St. Mary's to the country that nurtured me as an infant was nice." Academy.
