Melvin B. Miller
Editor & Publisher

Expecting the best

Last week’s report of the scores in the recent MCAS test for 10th grade students had good news on many issues. The 10th grade test is especially important because students who fail cannot graduate from high school. However, there are several opportunities to retest in the next two years.

In most school districts, the percentage of students who pass has increased over the past three years. This indicates that students now take the test seriously. Those who support MCAS have asserted that the dire consequences of failure get students’ attention.

Some opponents of MCAS have argued that students in districts with many low-income families would be at a grave disadvantage. However, 91 percent of the students at Brockton High School passed English and 77 percent passed math. More than 60 percent of those students come from low-income backgrounds. In Boston, 85 percent passed English and 78 percent passed math.

Those who failed or just barely passed and are in the “needs improvement” category will get special attention. The real goal is for students to score in the top two categories, “advanced” and “proficient.” What has caused the most excitement with this exam is the leap into those top two categories.

In Boston, 51 percent of students earned designations of advanced or proficient in English, 20 points higher than 2001. The Boston math score in those categories was also 51 percent, an increase of more than 10 points from 2001. With these jumps, Boston has surpassed 2001 statewide averages for students in the top two groups; however, the city still lags behind the current statewide averages of 69 and 67 percent for English and math. Nonetheless, the growth in poor urban schools indicates that those students can improve.

Another cause of concern was whether the scores of charter school students were satisfactory. A recent report by the U.S. Department of Education revealed that across the country, fourth grade students in charter schools did not perform as well on the National Assessment of Educational Progress as students in public schools.

While some state charter schools were comparable to the public school average, three were outstanding. Academy of the Pacific Rim, in the advanced and proficient categories, scored 79 percent in English and 91 percent in math. Boston Collegiate scored 78 percent in English and 100 percent in math. Media and Technology scored 82 percent in English and 97 percent in math. These charter school scores are well above the statewide average.

It appears that MCAS is indeed a useful tool for measuring the progress of education reform.

African soul food

At home, the cookbooks are usually found in the kitchen, upon a shelf within easy reach of the family chef. The books with the most appetizing recipes are often shopworn from frequent use.

A new cookbook, “The Soul of a New Cuisine: A Discovery of the Foods and Flavors of Africa” by Marcus Samuelsson, is so beautiful to look at that no one would want to subject it to the rigors of life in the kitchen. The exquisite photographs by Gediyon Kifle of people, places and food have elevated this book to a place on the living room tabletop.

Samuelsson’s tales of his travels across Africa carry the reader along as his companion. He has the vision of an anthropologist who understands the importance of the foods of the various cultures he encounters on his travels. African American readers will quickly realize how little they know about how and what Africans in the several regions eat.

Wiley Publishing has picked a winner with this cookbook. It claims a prominent place for African cuisine in the culinary world.