Achievement Gap in High School Graduation Rates Shrinks By Zenitha Prince

Jan. 3, 2016

Achievement Gap in High School Graduation Rates Shrinks

By Zenitha Prince

Shutterstock Photo

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Afro American Newspaper

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - High school students in the United States are graduating at higher rates than ever before, according to new data from the U.S. Department of Education. The trend includes progress among African-American students, leading to an erosion of the racial gap in graduation rates.

In the 2013-14 school year, 82 percent of eligible high school seniors graduated—it is the highest percentage since a standard means of calculating graduation rates was adopted by the states five years ago and the fourth consecutive rise in graduation rates.

“America’s students have achieved another record milestone by improving graduation rates for a fourth year,” U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said in a statement. “The hard work of teachers, administrators, students and their families has made these gains possible and as a result many more students will have a better chance of going to college, getting a good job, owning their own home, and supporting a family. We can take pride as a nation in knowing that we’re seeing promising gains, including for students of color.”

When broken down by race, the data shows that Black students graduated at a rate of 72.5 percent in 2013-14. That was an improvement from 67 percent in 2010-11.

Among White students, however, the graduation rate in 2013-14 was 87.2 percent—an almost 15 percentage point difference to that of Black students.

While the racial gap is still significant, the findings do indicate signs of positive change—in 2010-11, the achievement gap in graduation rates was 17 percent compared to a 14.7 percent difference three years later.

Officials said they are committed to bridging those divides even more.

“It is encouraging to see our graduation rate on the rise and I applaud the hard work we know it takes to see this increase,” said Delegated Deputy Secretary John King, of the U.S. Education Department. “But too many students never get their diploma, never walk across the graduation stage and while our dropout numbers are also decreasing, we remain committed to urgently closing the gaps that still exist in too many schools and in too many communities.”

Black Consciousness vs Christianity – Part Two by James Clingman

Jan. 3, 2016

Blackonomics

Black Consciousness vs Christianity – Part Two
By James Clingman

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Again, this is not an attempt to proselytize or to shape your thinking regarding religion or spirituality. Rather, this is an attempt to delve into a subject that is often brought up among Black folks and used to separate us instead of bring us together around practical economic/public policy solutions.

By example, in 1843, Christian minister and abolitionist, Henry Highland Garnet, gave an inspirational speech that shocked the delegates of the National Negro Convention. Known as the "Call to Rebellion" speech, in which Garnet encouraged slaves to turn against their masters. "Neither god, nor angels, or just men, command you to suffer for a single moment. Therefore it is your solemn and imperative duty to use every means, both moral, intellectual, and physical that promises success."

In response, Frederick Douglass spoke out against the speech to the convention. Garnet responded to Douglass’ rejoinder but the convention did not sanction Garnet's approach to abolition. To misunderstand the message here is to fall into that same trap of divisiveness; this is an attempt to build a bridge between “conscious” Blacks and Black Christians.

Can one be a Christian and also have a Black consciousness? This does not simply mean giving fiery sermons on Black consciousness but having no track record of doing anything to back up the rhetoric. It means doing the work that comes with being conscious. Last week’s column cited Garvey’s and MLK’s words to illustrate their Black/Christian consciousness rhetoric, but they also have a voluminous record of working according to their beliefs in both areas.

Too often we get so deep into Black Christian/Black Consciousness conversations and fail to get to the work of either. Seems some of us are convinced that it has to be either or. We can choose to be one or the other, but we can also choose to be both. My contention is that we can get the maximum from both camps, not by arguing or putting one another down, but by marshaling our forces for our collective economic and political benefit.

Here is a cross-section of three contemporary “Conscious/Christian” individuals. Father George Clements, the Chicago based Catholic Priest who founded the One Church-One Child program in the 1980’s and then moved on to become an integral part of the MATAH Network, the only Black owned and operated distribution network. Father Clements never compromised his Christian beliefs and yet has always stood strong in his own Black consciousness.

Richard A. Rose, a Church of Christ Minister in Cincinnati, Ohio, now retired. I have seen, first-hand, his dedication to Christian principles; and through conversations about his childhood I learned about Rose’s Black consciousness, the most outstanding act of which took place during the planning and construction a new church building. Rose insisted on hiring a Black architect and then a Black builder to do the work. Imagine our collective economic benefit if all contracts to build Black churches were awarded to Black architectural and construction firms.

Then, there is Jonathan Weaver, an A.M.E. Pastor in Bowie, Maryland. Also a Harvard Business School grad, he has such an extraordinarily high level of Black/Christian consciousness, and he uses it to teach about economic empowerment by inter-weaving relevant economic information into his sermons. Weaver has demonstrated the power of Black Conscious Christianity via establishing and working for twenty years now with the Collective Empowerment Group (CEG).

Other unapologetic Black Conscious Christians, like D.C. Pastor, Willie Wilson, stress and do the work of empowerment; they understand that, as Booker T. Washington said, “Not everyone goes to church, but everyone goes to business.”

Likewise, there are many non-Christians with what I call an “active” level of Black consciousness, who far exceed the work of some of our most noted Christian leaders, many of whom are only interested in their own self-aggrandizement and “prosperity.”

Imagine the progress we would make if we combined these groups’ efforts. Howard Thurman said, "What, then, is the word of the religion of Jesus to those who stand with their backs against the wall? ... They must recognize fear, deception, and hatred, each for what it is. Once having done this, they must learn how to destroy these or to render themselves immune to their domination."

“James Cone and the theologians of Black Consciousness in South Africa agreed that White missionaries had preached a form of Christianity that helped to sustain racist and colonialist oppression…But this was not the fault of the Gospel itself; it had resulted rather from an interpretation of it that served the selfish interests and sinful appetites of Europeans.” Black Power to Black Consciousness, Univ. of California Press

Marcus Garvey’s words, referring to the “injunction of Acts 17:26,” said “If Negros are Black, and Negros are created in God’s own image, then God must in some sense be Black.”

It’s time for the “Collection.” Say, “Ashe” or “Amen.”

Comfort or Justice? by Julianne Malveaux

Jan. 3, 2016

Comfort or Justice?
By Julianne Malveaux

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once wrote, “It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important.” Those students who are protesting campus racism need to keep that quote in mind as they assert their right to feel safe and comfortable on campus. When the protests have been well defined and include an end game, such as the University of Missouri protests that toppled a President and Chancellor, they have been effective. When protests broadly address issues like comfort, they are less successful. And while it is satisfying to force a President (or a faculty member for that matter) to resign, the conditions of campus life will not necessarily change because there is a new leader. Structural racism is so firmly embedded in our culture that it will take years, if not decades, of focused work and commitment to eliminate it. Unfortunately, too many are less dedicated to eliminating institutional racism than they are to maintaining the status quo. Consider, for example, the rhetoric during these Republican Presidential debates. Or, consider the clumsily racist question Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia posed when he asked whether black students should attend “lesser schools” than schools like the University of Texas.

Student activism was one of the highlights of 2015. Without waxing nostalgic, though, I’d suggest that some of these young activists take a page from the playbook written in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when protests shut campuses down for weeks. Student protests led to curriculum review on some campuses, the development of academic departments like African American studies and Ethnic Studies, the addition of faculty of color, a commitment to enroll more students of color, and more. “Back in the day”, we were far less concerned with “feeling” comfortable than with being empowered. We wanted change, and we were willing to fight for it. And, the change we wanted was tied to metrics. More scholarships, more faculty, more student admits. Not necessarily more comfort.

From my perspective discomfort is a good thing. Discomfort is a sign that something is wrong. Clearly there is much that is wrong on our campuses and in our nation. Racism is alive and well, though it shows itself in different forms than it did decades ago. The signs don’t say “white” or “colored” anymore. Few “civilized” whites use the n— word, but expletives are hardly necessary when there is a coded language of exclusion.

Too many of us prefer complacency to discomfort. We prefer to think that everything is fine. Too many would like to pretend that inequality and injustice are minor matters until a headline shakes us out of complacency – a young man shot 16 times while he is on his back, a young woman supposedly hanging herself in a jail cell. Then there is protest, and anger, and rage. Still, too little done to develop a sustainable attack on the racism that plagues our nation. Student activists of 2015 could learn from the sixties activists, and they can also teach “mainstream” leaders twenty-first century organizing techniques. And across generations, there must be teaching and learning about complacency and discomfort, about what change looks like, and about what people are willing to give up to get change.

This 2016 election year promises lots of conversation about justice and change. Some political leaders will talk of “overregulation”, while others will suggest that we must pass new laws. Some will suggest that affirmative action is no longer necessary, while others are clear that there remains unequal access to higher education. When questions of law are debated, I find it useful to consider Dr. King’s view of law – it won’t make you love me, but it will keep you from lynching me and, as he said, “that’s pretty important”. Dr. King described himself as a “drum major for justice”, not a drum major for comfort. The campus activists who are raising critical questions are motivated by justice and cannot allow themselves to be sidelined with conversations about comfort. Comfort will always be elusive in a racist society. And that’s a good thing.

Julianne Malveaux is an author and economist based in Washington, DC. Her latest book “Are We Better Off? Race, Obama and Public Policy” will be released in 2016 and is available for preorder at www.juliannemalveaux.com

Looking Both Ways By Dr. E. Faye Williams, Esq.

Jan. 3, 2016

Looking Both Ways
By Dr. E. Faye Williams, Esq.

(TriceEdneyWire.com) — I've always been intrigued with the symbolism used to depict change from one year to another. It's interesting to see my 365 days through a year represented by a decrepit old man who'd been a baby just 365 days before!

I'm more amazed that the symbolism hasn't changed and that millions who bear no resemblance in appearance or gender have their aspirations and lives represented by them. I question if the longevity of these symbols is unintended traditionalism or representative of a last vestige of white male dominance over society.

If the latter is true, we've lived the last 7 years in a contradictory new reality. It's a reality I embrace and as an unapologetic supporter of our President, I've welcomed his leadership, decision-making and guidance of our nation. He's the only President in decades who demonstrates an interest in the welfare of Americans who reside in the lower socio-economic half of the population.

Many blinded by Washington politics have overlooked the fact that in 366 days we will have come to a virtual end of the Obama Era. Because time doesn't wait, now is the time to review the impact of President Obama on our lives and reflect on his potential for success in 2016.

Recent headlines praise President Obama for fixing the economy broken by Bush. This is partially the result of an improving employment picture. He’s added 197,000 private sector jobs to the economy in November. This extended a pattern of employment growth for every month in 2015 and for the 68 consecutive months before then. There is more to be done, but it is rightly said that President Obama has put America back to work.

More Americans are working and more are healthier. The milestone of health coverage for over 90% of Americans, achieved in 2015, is a national first. Each day, the ACA affirms, instead of a privilege of wealth, affordable health care is a right of citizenship.

Unlike many of his predecessors, President Obama recognizes diplomacy as preferable to conflict. Although criticized by warmongers who've never served in the military, Obama foreign policy standards have lessened the potential for US involvement in war. We've restored diplomatic relations with Cuba and led multi-lateral negotiations preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weaponry. Talks in Paris have yielded an agreement between 200 nations for combating climate change.

To my great shock, a Congressional bi-partisan budget plan produced:

Investments in research, early education, job development and public infrastructure
Tax credits benefitting 24 million families
500,000 jobs with investments in defense and non-defense programs
Consumer protections
Extension of tax credit for investments in "clean" energy

Signed in December, the Every Student Succeeds Act eliminated No Child Left Behind and set realistic learning targets specifically tailored by individual states for their respective student populations. Rather than demanding across-the-board success in standardized testing, ESSA promotes local innovation, replicates successful initiatives and invests in instruction that works.

This partial list of the President’s achievements for 2015 would be considered a commendable record for another's full term. More impressive are signals of more to come in 2016! Some suggest that 2016 targets include closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; a renewed push for increasing the minimum wage, getting a handle on guns and criminal justice reform.

Closing 'Gitmo' would create a windfall for our economy. Raising the minimum wage would improve the quality of life for millions of Americans while ending unintended subsidies to businesses that employ workers who rely on public assistance to live at poverty levels. He’s dealt with harsh sentences, already introduced revised judicial sentencing guidelines and endorsed the de-militarization of local police.

Looking backwards or forward, the Obama Administration demonstrates past service to average citizens and a commitment for their improved future.

(Dr. E. Faye Williams is President/CEO of the National Congress of Black Women, Inc. www.nationalcongressbw.org. 202/678-6788)

Civil Rights Leaders Disappointed as Grand Jury Refuses to Indict in Police Killing of 12-Year-Old Tamir Rice by Hazel Trice Edney

Dec. 29, 2015

Civil Rights Leaders Disappointed as Grand Jury Refuses to Indict in Police Killing of 12-Year-Old Tamir Rice

Shocking announcement compounds disappointments in other cases

By Hazel Trice Edney

Tamir Rice

Freddie Gray

Sandra Bland

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - National Civil rights leaders are expressing great disappointment and calling for new policies after a Cleveland grand jury refused to indict the police officer who shot and killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice only seconds after encountering him with a toy gun.

“Has the value of the lives of our children been reduced to a decision made in less than two seconds? That is the amount of time it took for one officer to decide whether Tamir Rice should die….less than two seconds,” said NAACP President Cornell William Brooks, in a statement. “Life and death decisions are made every day by police officers across the country, but the benefit of the doubt is often given in the preservation of white lives while the presumption of guilt, dangerousness and suspicion, time after time, is reserved for black lives.”

The grand jury decision finally came Dec. 28, more than a year after the Nov. 22, 2014 shooting. In that situation, police were called by a man describing a person with a gun, but told police dispatchers that the person could be a child and that the gun could be a toy. That information was never communicated to officers.

When police arrived on the scene at Cudell Park, rookie cop Timothy Loehmann pulled out his revolver and opened fire upon Rice within seconds. Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy J. McGinty told the media that Rice was reaching into his waistband for the toy gun, prompting Loehmann to shoot. He said the toy was “indistinguishable” from a real gun even as Officer Frank Garmback, who was driving, pulled up less than seven feet from the youngster.

“The outcome will not cheer anyone, nor should it…The death of Tamir Rice was an absolute tragedy. But it was not, by the law that binds us, a crime,” McGinty said to media.

National Action Network’s Al Sharpton says he is appalled but not surprised “given the behavior and tone displayed by prosecutor Tim McGinty’s all year.”

In part, Sharpton was referring to McGinty’s release of witness statements and other evidence before the grand jury even ruled. McGinty also publically released the opinions of two independent experts saying that Loehmann had acted reasonably.

Samaria Rice, the mother of Tamir, released a statement in response to the ruling. It also blamed the prosecutor, saying, “After this investigation—which took over a year to unfold—and Prosecutor McGinty’s mishandling of this case, we no longer trust the local criminal-justice system, which we view as corrupt.”

Her statement continued, “Prosecutor McGinty deliberately sabotaged the case, never advocating for my son, and acting instead like the police officers’ defense attorney. In a time in which a non-indictment [of police officers] who have killed an unarmed black child is business as usual, we mourn for Tamir, and for all of the black people who have been killed by the police without justice. In our view, this process demonstrates that race is still an extremely troubling and serious problem in our country and the criminal-justice system...As the video shows, Officer Loehmann shot my son in less than a second. All I wanted was someone to be held accountable. But this entire process was a charade,” she said.

Sharpton says, “We will continue to support Samaria Rice as we call for a special national prosecutor to monitor such cases and we stand by the Rice family as they are dealt this blow during the holidays,” she said.

The announcement of the grand jury’s decision not to indict in the Rice case seemed to send shock waves around the country largely because of the publicity concerning the case – focusing on the “two second” before he opened fire and the fact that Rice was a child with a toy gun.

Ohio Congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge called on the community to remain calm and continue to support the family. She blamed the non-indictment squarely on Prosecutor McGinty, “whose handling of this case in my opinion tainted the outcome.”

She said McGinty should have recused himself and allowed a special prosecutor to be appointed for an “independent review.”

Fudge said, “The prosecutor conducted the investigation in a manner that I believe inappropriate and as a result he has lost the trust and confidence of our community, and, indeed, mine as well. I accept the decision, but the means do not justify the end."

The Tamir Rice ruling culminates several end of the year disappointments in the escalating movement for police and law enforcement accountability around the nation. Other disappointments to the civil rights community:

• On Dec. 21, a grand jury decided to make no indictments in the case of Sandra Bland found hanged in a Texas prison cell last July. Bland’s case went viral after video of a White cop was shown arresting her after she refused to put out a cigarette when she was pulled over for allegedly failing to signal a lane change. Police say she committed suicide.

• On Dec. 16, the Baltimore trial of police Officer William Porter ended in a hung jury. He was the first of six officers accused in the April 19, 2015 death of Freddie Gray, who died of a severed spinal cord sustained during an arrest. The Freddie Gray case led to numerous protests and a riot in late April. Porter will be retried in June.

• Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is dealing with yet another police shooting amidst calls for him to step down. Bettie Jones, 55, a neighbor of 19-year-old Quintonio LeGrier, was killed as police shot at LeGrier as he reportedly hurled a baseball bat during what the police described as a domestic situation Dec. 27. Emanuel rushed home from his holiday vacation to deal with the fall out.

That shooting comes amidst protests and a federal investigation related to a police shooting of Laquan McDonald 16 times, Oct. 20, 2014. Recently released Police dashcam shows White police officer Jason Van Dyke shooting the Black 17-year-old as he appeared to be walking away from police holding a small knife. The McDonald case has led to calls for Mayor Rahm Emanuel to step down.

Still, the wins appear to outweigh the losses as police cameras and indictments in cases of police misconduct appear to be growing. This can be traced directly to pressure from groups such as “Black Lives Matter”, the use of videos to prove police misconduct and the spread of injustices and protest strategies by social media, forcing national media to publicize the cases.

“The Number of Cops Indicted for Murder Spikes Upward,” read a headline in TheAtlantic.com, last August. The article reported, “In the past five months, at least 14 police officers have been charged for on-duty killings—more than five times the normal rate.”

Still civil rights leaders say more national policies – such as national standards of police misconduct and a national prosecutor to take over controversial cases - are necessary to deal with the scourge. Brooks concludes of the Rice verdict, “More remains to be done in the streets, courts, police department, legislature, city hall and Congress. The tragically lost life of this 12-year-old child demands that we do so.”