Ky. district looks to move minorities to gifted classes

LEXINGTON, Ky. — A central Kentucky school district is drawing up plans for a pilot program aimed at moving more minority students into gifted and talented programs.

The program, being studied by the Fayette County school district, would place 20 African American boys, based on a preschool test, in a special kindergarten class with a rigorous curriculum that will focus on critical thinking and problem solving skills.

Under the plan, the students would remain together through the second grade, when they would be tested for placement in the district’s gifted and talented program. The class could be taught all three years by a teacher from the gifted and talented program, who would work with an assistant instructor and a speech pathologist.

The Fayette County school board is expected to vote in July on a preliminary plan, although which of the district’s 33 elementary schools would house the program this fall has not been decided.

“You find that African American males constitute the bottom of all the content areas statewide,” said Vince Mattox, director of community and government relations for the district. “That’s the group we’ve got to accelerate in order to close the achievement gap. That’s one of the most pronounced groups.”

The achievement gap refers to the disparities separating minority, special needs and low-income students from their peers.

In Fayette County, 41 percent of African American boys in the third grade had the highest scores in the reading portion of the state’s standardized testing system last year, Mattox said.

By comparison, 79 percent of white boys had proficient or distinguished scores. In math, 35 percent of African American boys scored proficient or distinguished, compared with 68 percent of white boys.

The program is among several being tried nationally to address the achievement gap problem, said Kati Haycock, president of Education Trust, a national organization that focuses on issues related to the achievement gap.

“It’s not like we’re doing so well by these kids in any other settings,” she said.

While it is a good idea to have an all-male class, girls should not be left out, said Leonard Sax, founder and executive director of the National Association for Single Sex Public Education.

Sax said data show that girls disengage from typically male-dominated subjects including math and science by the third grade.

“I’m very uneasy with a school doing this for boys but not girls,” he said. “I’m concerned that they are just looking at the test scores. But the state doesn’t test kids’ interest in physics or algebra.”

Freddie Brown, executive director of the YMCA Black Achievers program, is excited the program will offer rigorous instruction, but he also has concerns.

“Students need to learn in a heterogeneous environment,” he said. “If it gets too homogeneous, when the environment changes, I don’t know how much of an effect that will have on them. My worry is, what would happen in their third-grade year?”

The program isn’t segregationist — rather, it is aimed at helping an underachieving group that needs help, said Arnold Gaither, who leads the One Community, One Voice initiative.

“Would they prefer to have these students continue to fail?” asked Gaither. “To the critics, they need to offer up a better plan because, so far, the plans that have been used haven’t worked.”

(Associated Press)