The Black Star Project

Parents and Community Must Be Involved to Successfully
Educate Black Students in Chicago Public Schools
 
 
(Chicago) -   Phillip Jackson, executive director of The Black Star Project, and one hundred Black parents presented a plan to the Chicago Board of Education on Wednesday, November 14, 2007.  They asked Rufus Williams, board president, to join them in an effort to successfully educate Black children, as well as all children.  Williams agreed to work with Black parents to fix this problem.  In 2003, less than 30% of Black 11th-grade students passed the Prairie State Achievement Exam in reading.  Five years later in 2007, that number dropped to 27%.  That means one out of four Black Chicago public school students cannot read at grade level as they prepare to graduate from high school.

The racial academic achievement gap between White and Black students in Chicago widened in reading from 32.2 points in 2003 to 36.7 points in 2007.  According to the Schott Foundation for Public Education, only 35 percent of the Black boys who should have graduated from Chicago public high schools did so at the close of the 2003-2004 school year.  In 2007, the ACT scores of every other ethnic group in the nation rose while Black students' scores decreased by 1 point to an abysmal 17.  The score for Chicago students is 16.6.  The average 17-year-old Black student has the reading and math scores of the average 14-year-old White student, according to the Nation's Report Card: National Assessment for Educational Progress, produced by the National Center for Educational Statistics.

Jackson says, "If Black students cannot read well, they cannot work, live or play in Chicago.  They cannot survive in Chicago, in America or in many parts of the world."  Because there is a racial academic gap in school, there is a racial academic gap in life.  Because Black children fail in school, they succeed in the streets, in unemployment, in being homeless, in government dependency, in incarceration and in early death.
 

Jackson and community members presented devastating facts about the educational deficiencies of Black students in Chicago and across the country.  Then they presented a comprehensive eight-point plan to eliminate the Racial Academic Achievement Gap and to successfully educate all children. Jackson says, "Schools cannot properly and substantially educate Black children without the help and support of parents, families and communities.  Jackson's  plan will help Black students become educated and prepared for the new global, social, educational and economic world."  The plan was also delivered to Mayor Richard Daley.  (Please see attached Facts and The Plan.)

Educate or Die! -  The Facts and The Plan

Fact - In Chicago in 2003, only 29.9% of Black 11th-graders passed the state reading test.  Five years later in 2007, an even smaller percentage, 27% of these students, read at grade level, according to the Illinois' Prairie State Achievement Exam (PSAE) data.

Fact - In Chicago in 2003, only 17.4% of Black 11th-graders passed the state math test.  Five years later in 2007, that figure dropped to 16.7%, according to the PSAE.

Fact - The Chicago racial academic achievement gap between White and Black students in reading was 32.2 points in 2003.  In 2007 the gap has grown to 36.7 points.

Fact - The Chicago racial academic achievement gap between White and Black students in math was 37.2 points in 2003.  In 2007 the gap has grown to 45.5 points or by 12.8%.

Fact - In the 2006 school year, the average freshman attending Chicago's public schools missed 19 days of school and failed two or more classes.

Fact -According to the Schott Foundation for Public Education, only 35% of the Black boys attending public high schools in Chicago, who should have graduated with the class of 2004, did so.

Fact - In 2007 ACT scores for every other ethnic group in the nation rose.  Asians up .3 points to 22.6, Whites up .1 point to 22.1, Native Americans up .1 point to 18.9, Latinos up .1 point to 18.7 while Black Students' average score went down by .1 point to 17.  In Chicago, the average score for Black students on the ACT was 16.6.

Fact - According to SAT test data published in 2007 by The College Board: Whites from families with incomes of less than $10,000 had a mean SAT score of 980. This is 118 points higher than the national mean for all blacks.  Additionally, Whites from families with incomes below $10,000 had a mean SAT test score that was 32 points higher than SAT scores of blacks whose families had incomes of more than $100,000.

Fact - The average 17-year-old Black student has the reading and math scores of the average 14-year-old White student, according to the Nation's Report Card: National Assessment for Educational Progress, produced by the National Center for Educational Statistics.

Fact - The Percent of Illinois Students Not Ready to Succeed as Freshmen in College, according to the 2007 ACT results: Asian American - 65%; White - 72%; all students - 79%; Hispanic - 93%; Native American - 94%; and African American - 97%

Fact - One out of three Black boys, born after 2001, will spend time in a jail or prison according to the U.S. Justice Department.
 
 

The Black Star plan to eliminate the racial academic achievement gap in Chicago schools:

1)  Create a system of parental support and community involvement in the education of Black students, which includes a "home education system" to augment what is happening in school.

2)  Provide mentoring (especially for Black boys) and motivational services to re-inspire Black students to want to learn.

3)  Engage in a community-wide literacy/tutoring initiative that will ensure that all 1st- through 3rd- grade Black boys read at grade level.  This program should be housed in Freedom Schools - located in such places as schools, churches, community centers and park district facilities.

4)  Ensure that all teachers exhibit cultural competency with Black students, especially Black boys, and ensure that they are of high-quality with with top-notch teaching skills.

5)  Moderate and reduce the over-use of special education designations for Black boys.

6)  Empower students to start clubs at high schools that allow them to be part of the solution to eliminate the racial academic achievement gap.  These clubs should promote academic excellence, community service, entrepreneurship, college preparation and other important life-building activities.

7)  Achieve educational alignment among schools, parents, community leaders, government officials, business leaders, faith-based leaders, students and other institutions to solve the racial academic achievement gap.  Establish a special council to monitor progress on this issue.  Work with parents, students and teachers to change the culture and environment of the schools.

8)  Re-direct the necessary funding to administer an independent community structure to manage this plan that connects to resources and supports educational improvement in schools.

(This plan was created by Phillip Jackson in 2007.)