PA. EDUCATION Nominee sets goal to bridge achievement gap

The nominee says the gap can be traced to slavery.
HARRISBURG (AP) -- Bridging the academic-achievement chasm between black and white pupils is a challenge that Education Secretary nominee Francis Barnes, who is poised to become Pennsylvania's first black education secretary, is eager to tackle.
From his perspective, one source of the so-called "achievement gap" can be traced to the introduction of slavery in the Colonial era, as well as early laws that denied blacks the right to be educated, own property, or marry.
"When you look at that, the fact that it was actually illegal to educate African-Americans ... you can say we've made a lot of progress in that area, but I think that there are many psychological and other hangovers, because slavery is a devastating thing," Barnes said in a recent interview with The Associated Press.
Report card's results
According to the most recent state report card, which breaks down pupils' state test performance in different grades by gender, race and other categories, at least 50 percent of the state's white pupils were performing at or above grade level in math and reading, while only 18 percent to 30 percent of black pupils met the same standard in those subjects.
"I know that there have been a number of people that have accepted the challenge of closing the achievement gap, and I join them," Barnes said.
Other black leaders who focus on education are divided over how much weight to give the argument that the lagging performance of black pupils can be linked to slavery.
The Rev. Arthur White, pastor of Christ Community Baptist Church in Philadelphia and president of the Pennsylvania Baptist State Convention, said he thinks the institution of slavery was just the beginning of a systemic educational bias against blacks.
"It goes back to our fundamental relationship with America and America's relationship with us," said White, 56, who also serves on the executive board of Good Schools Pennsylvania, a nonprofit advocacy group.
White grew up in Louisiana, where he had firsthand experience with the "separate-but-equal" doctrine of segregated schools.
"The books we had were all torn and well-worn, so whenever we got access to information, it was five years too late or even longer than that," he said. "Even since Brown vs. Board of Education, we've tried to deal with the disparities."
A different view
State Rep. Thaddeus Kirkland, a Democrat who serves on the House Education Committee, views it differently.
While Kirkland doesn't necessarily disagree with Barnes, he thinks blacks made significant progress toward closing the gap in the 1960s and 1970s, "and somewhat in the 1980s."
Black pupils' academic progress took a slide over the past decade primarily because of parental permissiveness, rising teen pregnancy rates, and an influx of drugs into the black community, Kirkland said.
"I understand the impact that slavery has, but I believe that we as African-Americans are just not having education as our No. 1 priority," said Kirkland.
Kirkland, who grew up in a large family where both parents worked, said some parents today are more inclined to indulge their children, "giving them $100, $200 sneakers and name-brand clothes."
"My father wasn't going out and breaking his back to say, 'I'm going to buy everyone a pair of Air Jordans,' when we could barely put food on the table," he said.
Within the past few months, the state has begun a three-year project in which 16 schools will try to develop ways to close the achievement gap, borrowing from schools in other states that have succeeded in doing so.