No ‘Ebonics’ in New Oakland School Plan

The Oakland schools task force that six months ago created an international furor by declaring the speech patterns of some African American students a separate “genetically based” language--one deserving of being preserved in classrooms--has issued a new, distinctly less controversial report that does not even use the term “ebonics.”

The new document, to be presented to the Oakland Board of Education on Wednesday, also omits past suggestions that teachers be trained to speak black English and that the school district consider applying for federal bilingual education funds for black students.

What it does propose is a comprehensive but conventional series of moves to improve the educational achievement of the African American majority in the 52,000-student district.

“I think they’re trying to avoid being a media spectacle again,” said Jean Quan, the president of the Oakland Board of Education.

But she said the district is not backing down from its original intent of helping improve student achievement by recognizing linguistic differences.

“Our kids don’t speak standard English and we want to respect the culture they bring from home and want to use it to help them speak standard English,” Quan said. “Whatever you call it, many of our children from our poorest neighborhoods don’t speak standard English.”

In December, the board adopted the recommendations of the Oakland Unified School District’s African American task force, a panel formed to address the fact that although black students constitute 52% of the district’s students, they make up 71% of those assigned to special education classes and only 37% of those designated as gifted.

The task force’s recommendations were replete with references to the students’ “primary language” and the need to use that language in classrooms to help them acquire skill in standard English.

The resulting outcry ranged from talk shows to editorial pages to comedy routines on late-night TV and drew in such figures as civil rights leader the Rev. Jesse Jackson, author Maya Angelou and U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley. Critics blasted the idea, saying that it would do more to hold African American students back than it would to help them.

The Los Angeles Unified School District board considered but did not adopt a similar proposal, voting instead to evaluate its current programs.

The Linguistics Society of America voted to support Oakland’s position, however, saying that it made sense for students to understand their own language patterns as a bridge to learning to speak in a more standard fashion.

But, in the face of continued opposition from Jackson and others, the Oakland board revised its resolution in January, removing some of the more explosive terms. Jackson then became a supporter and began urging a broader examination of ways to improve academic achievement.

Jason Hodge, a member of the Oakland board who had criticized the previous task force report, said the new recommendations “get down to what it was supposed to address, which is the needs of African American students.”

“With the explosive language gone, maybe we can focus on doing something.”

The resolution adopted in December directed Oakland Supt. Carolyn Getridge to work with the task force to come up with policies and programs to improve the performance of black students. That process, in turn, gave the task force the opportunity to tone down its rhetoric.

Getridge’s cover letter on the new recommendations states that “it is the combination of rigorous, high-quality educational programs, family and community support and consistent monitoring and evaluation that will make significant and measurable improvements in the achievement of African American students.”

The recommendations, which would cost about $2 million, include expanding the district’s “standard English program” to more predominantly African American schools and child-care sites, purchasing reading textbooks that are culturally sensitive, and training teachers in African American culture and linguistic patterns.

The task force also recommends hiring a “community coordinator” to work with parents and setting up Saturday schools throughout the district for extra tutoring.

In addition, the report says that the district ought to hire more African American teachers and administrators, revise the district’s policy on identifying gifted students and recruit more mentors for students.