Agenda - 05-18-2004-7a - Laserfiche WebLink

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12 "bztegration in most instances meant that African-American children had to attend what had been White schools. That's exactly what happened to nae, It meant that Afr•ican- Anaerican adn:inistr°ators and even some teachers wer°e displaced. It meant that many African-Amer°ican students were r°e-segregated once they moved into the integr°ated schools by being placed in lower-level classes. It meant that African-American teachers, parents, and administr•atw•s had less ir~trence in their newly integrated schools. It ntemrt that cor~ict and distrust characterized the relationship or lack of r°elationslrip and that marry people, nunry sttdents, many parents lost their sense of community, It meant that more minority students were labeled mrd held to lower standards and drat tlzeir° aspic°ations in many instances were not protected. It meant that rztagy African-American children were taught a cur ricatlunr that had little to do with their exper°iences and a curriculum that often suggested that then• reference group was invisible mrd had little sigrttficance. " Superintendent Carraway concluded with, "Today, perhaps the most important ftenction of any state and airy local gover•nmer:t is that of education. It is the very, foundation of good citizenship, It is doubtftd that any child cart r°easonably be expected to succeed if they me not educated appropriately. " Ms. Reid told the participants she had been at the Wake County Courthouse that morning listening to the parties argue the case of known as "Leandro", or Hoke County v. the State of North Carolina and the North Carolina State Board of Education, before Superior Court Judge Howard Manning. The state's position, according to Ms, Reid, was essentially that it only had to provide a minimal level or minimal standard to be called a "sound basic education". "As I listened to this case this morning, where we have these people in nice suits argzring about the fate of children in North Carolina, I was appalled at how little progress we have really made ....I dat 't have the figures, for this,yem°, but I know the figures, for last yem°, for the state end of grade tests Of those, figtcres, 48 percent of Afi~camAnterican students did Trot rnalce level three. I don't call that a small group ofstudents. I don't call that a small minority. I call tTtat pretty darn significant. " Ms. Reid expressed how disturbed she was by the data and the state's legal position, especially as we neared the 50`h anniversary of the Brown decision. "If your child is in Hoke County or Robeson Comrty, you do not have the saute educational oppor°tunities as if you were in Wnke Cour:ty or Charlotte Mecklenburg. Tlris is not equal. This is unequal". In drawing parallels between 1954 and 200.3, Professor Bolger said he kept going back to the opening lines from the famous book by Charles Dickens, the Tale of Two Cities.. Dickens wrote: "It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. It was the age of wisdom; it was the age of foolishness", and so on. But eventually, the professor decided that 200.3 was neither the best nor worst of times for African-Americans., He agreed, as Dr, Carraway suggested, that there were many features of the segregated world of public