Ebonics: The Finale

[azur@netcom.com (Steve Schear)]

Oakland school officials drop ebonics references

Associated Press

OAKLAND, Calif.-The Oakland public schools African American Task Force has
dropped all references to ebonies in a final report about improving
education for black students.

The district caused a national controversy four months ago when it
suggested that ebonies, or black English, was a second language that is
"genetically based."

The final report, obtained by The Oakland Tribune, still emphasizes
improving black students' language skills, but it makes no reference to
ebonies.

There is also no reference to black students speaking a separate language.
And provisions suggesting the district pursue federal bilingual funding for
black students, as it does for children who speak Spanish or Chinese at
home, have been deleted.

The U S. Department of Education quickly dismissed the latter idea when it
was raised in December.

Instead, the 17-page report calls for better language and reading programs,
additional tests to measure the language skills of students who speak black
English, and expansion of the Standard English Proficiency program.

The task force says the district should aggressively recruit black teachers
and offer help to black teachers who have not passed the state teaching
exam.

The task force also recommends hiring a coordinator specifically to improve
the education of black students and a budget of nearly $2 million over five
years to achieve the goals.

The task force's work is an attempt to improve the dismal record of
Oakland's black students. Black students, who represent 53 percent of the
district, make up 71 percent of special education classes, 37 percent of
gifted classes and 80 percent of suspensions.

--end

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