Oak Parker Oliver Pergams knows the achievement gap at District 97 schools, particularly Beye Elementary, all too well. He recalls an incident some years ago at Beye involving his young son. A teacher, alleges Pergams, simply refused to believe that his son could read. The teacher, he recalled, thought his son, who is interracial, was just memorizing random words. As such, he wasn’t allowed to attend a special reading program, Pergams said.
Pergams and his wife did inquire but eventually let the matter go. That is until they found out a couple of years later that two Caucasian girls had been allowed to attend the special program.
The Pergams’ example raises the question of teacher accountability and the role it plays in student achievement. But it’s only one aspect of a complex problem, one that is not exclusive to Beye School.
Beye, 230 N. Cuyler Ave., has in recent years posted the widest gaps in reading and math test scores between black and white students in the district. However, it’s not the only school in the district or the nation plagued by large gaps in achievement.
“It’s not anything unique to Oak Park. It’s a problem everywhere,” said Pergams, a visiting research professor in biology at the University of Illinois at Chicago and an Oak Park resident for more than 10 years.
Pergams has two other children currently attending Beye and Oak Park and River Forest High School. Beye, Pergams suggested, would be a good place to start looking at the gap and solutions to it.
In a Nov. 9, letter submitted by Pergams to Wednesday Journal, he points out a four-year trend from 2002 to 2005 at all of District 97’s elementary schools.
During those years, 93 percent of white children at Beye met or exceeded standards in reading and math under guidelines set forth by “No Child Left Behind.” Only 38 percent of black students met or exceeded standards at Beye.
Of Beye’s 383 students enrolled in kindergarten through 5th grade, 27.4 percent are black.
Except for Mann School, 921 N. Kenilworth Ave., and Lincoln School, 1111 S. Grove Ave.,?#34;with 12.8 percent and 20.7 percent respectively?#34;every other District 97 school has 25 percent or more enrolled black students.
Beye Principal Jonathan Ellwanger acknowledged Beye’s achievement gap and efforts by the district to find solutions.
“The achievement gap is the greatest challenge facing us as a school and a nation,” said Ellwanger, Beye’s principal since 2001, and a music teacher there for 15 years prior to becoming principal.
The school’s PTO will sponsor an Achievement Gap Forum in January focusing on concerns (see sidebar).
Among the district-wide goals outlined by Supt. Constance Collins to address the achievement gap at all schools, are extra reading for students during the day. That may involve switching with or adding to existing curriculum, said Kevin Anderson, assistant superintendent for teaching and learning at District 97.
Irving Elementary, 1125 S. Cuyler Ave., currently has the extra reading time. The district is looking to do the same with math.
The students’ involvement and acceptance of higher standards and more rigorous instruction is crucial, said Ellwanger.
“The kids absolutely have to buy into the notion that they are in control of their future,” he said. “We have not made progress as others have, but we’ve made some progress and it’s been growing.”
Studies looking into the gap cite a number of contributing factors, including such things as teacher biases and lower expectations some teachers may have for black students compared to whites.
It points though to a larger issue: are today’s minority students being taught by qualified teachers?
“If you wanted to change the performance of students nationwide that probably is one area you would want to look at,” said Daniel Beach, a professor of psychology and department chair at Dominican University.
Beach points to other contributing variables based on research.
? Black students lose ground over the summer compared to whites
? Black students enter school with a significant language gap that follows them throughout their elementary grades
? The need for smaller classroom size; a maximum of 15 students
“These are issues that are going to take more than one generation to solve, that is, if we’re really going to deal with them,” said Beach.
He added that the schools should not solely shoulder the blame for student achievement, but said the quality of teachers is the most significant contributing factor. Having more culturally-attuned teachers, some scholars insist, is important to a student’s education.
“Some teachers are not culturally savvy,” said Lynn Allen, director of multicultural education for District 97.
She said some teachers fail to relate to minority students because they know little about who the students are and where they come from.
“One teacher, a student told me, didn’t know who Mae Jemison was,” said Allen, referring to the African-American astronaut and Chicago native who in 1992 became the first black woman to travel in space. “And this was a history teacher. If you don’t know who our heroes are, how can you expect to build a relationship with the student?”
Assistant Superintendent Anderson said it’s possible that some teachers are unaware that they’re being biased to a student. District 97 has diversity training for teachers but no formal testing in the area of diversity and classroom instruction.
Anderson said the district is open to any testing or additional teacher training in diversity that’s available. He cautioned those critical to understand that improvements will not come overnight.
“From the outside it looks like we’re not moving but we’re moving as fast as we can given the time it takes to implement things,” he said.
Anderson said the district is taking the issue seriously.
Pergams does not slam the entire Oak Park school district. He does, though, offer a critique of the system that few parents are willing to share in public.
“More African-American parents should come forward,” he said. “Unless people know these problems exists we can’t begin to correct them.”