Our Story of Ebonics: A Tale of Language, Literacy and Learning.

If the national news media serves as your only source of information about the recent experiences of the Oakland Unified School District, I'm afraid you have a very distorted picture of reality.

Since last December, when the Oakland school board first publicly addressed the issue of language development for African American students, the press has demonstrated its skill at sensationalism and its inability to examine reasonably and thoughtfully an important public policy issue. The media fixation on ebonics has diverted attention from our intent and goal of developing standard English language skills in our students, thereby positioning them for higher achievement levels.

In spite of the wildly varying interpretations of the board's resolution on language development, our intent all along has been to help students learn to speak standard English while recognizing the different speech patterns many students bring to the classroom.

However, as an editorial in the San Francisco Chronicle put it, "some good did come from the international and generally negative publicity." The wide attention given to the actions of the Oakland school board has sparked a national debate and a consciousness raising of the failure of the nation's public schools, particularly in urban school systems, to effectively serve the educational needs of African American and other minority students. I believe our experiences in Oakland will provide helpful insight into effective strategies to address this underachievement as the country embraces a national imperative to educate all students to high standards.

Needy Students

The single guiding goal in our district is to guarantee that conditions exist for all students to achieve academic success. This is our promise. We are reinventing public schooling in a most fundamental way, moving beyond the mere right to attend school to a much more profound promise that students have the right to academic achievement in school.

The children of Oakland deserve this right. They include 94 percent children of color; 52 percent African American children; 60 percent who qualify for free or reduced lunch; 48 percent who come from households receiving Aid to Families with Dependent Children; and more than 30 percent who have a home language other than English. Our students speak 80-plus different languages, of which we formally track 61.

Oakland is the sixth largest school district in California with more than 53,000 students with another 4,000 enrolled at district early childhood education centers and another 26,000 adults enrolled in adult education courses.

Bold Response

The actions of our board, beginning with its first adopted resolution on Dec. 19, represent a bold response to a chronic and growing gap between those who are successful in our public schools and those who are not.

In Oakland, the grade point average of African American students is 1.8 on a 4.0 scale, a C-minus, while white and Asian students average over 3.0, or a B.

SAT scores show an equally widening gap. African American students in Oakland score 97 points below the national average on the verbal portion and 110 points below the national average on the mathematics portion.

While African Americans comprise 52 percent of our district enrollment, they fill 71 percent of the special education rolls but only 37 percent of the places in gifted and talented program.

The key factor determining success in our public schools is not race and it is not innate ability. Rather, it is the capacity of a school or school district to provide an engaging learning environment using instructional strategies that enable students to achieve.

While exceptions exist, the data clearly paint a picture of an educational system in Oakland that fails a large percentage of its students, and unfortunately this pattern of failure is e norm for our nation's urban school districts. Our current educational practices will not prepare many African American and other minority students to perform at high levels of achievement.

In Oakland, we have taken a stand: This achievement gap is no longer acceptable.

What is at issue here is not whether ebonics is a language. That question is a scholarly debate for linguists. What is at issue are the steps we, as educational leaders, parents, community members and government leaders, are willing to take to address the chronic underachievement of African American and other minority children.

What are we doing to address these alarming statistics? We have engaged our district in systemwide reform.

We have established high standards in a rigorous academic curriculum, including:

* Algebra for all students by 9th grade;

* Laboratory science in both middle and high school;

* Technology and computer classes; and

* Four years of English in high school.

We have put in place a system of accountability, from the board room to the classroom, and this fall we will widely publish our first school-by-school district report card on key academic indicators.

Transforming Language

In order to achieve these high standards we have instituted new practices and new ways of teaching. These methods include a clear recognition of the connection between language, literacy and learning. Without mastery of standard English, students never make it into the classes traditionally considered to be the gatekeeping courses for higher education.

Our district's pilot of the Standard English Proficiency program, a state of California model program, is one such strategy. This approach helps African American students transform the language patterns they use at home and in their neighborhoods into the standard American English that will help them succeed academically and in the workplace.

Because, we know from brain research that the auditory language memory of a child is set by age 3 or 4, the structure of the auditory language center of a child's brain will reflect the patterns of the home language. Consequently, if a school-age child is to develop proficiency in standard English, he or she must recognize differences in language and actively acquire the patterns of standard English.

Promising Results

Does this program work? The early evidence suggests so. At Prescott Elementary School, which has been an early leader in Oakland in providing SEP strategies in the classroom, students' reading scores are consistently above the district average.

Language development is just one part of my recommendation to combine rigorous, high-quality educational programs, family and community support and consistent monitoring and evaluation. Our recently adopted language arts textbooks and instructional materials are culturally sensitive and reflect standards for these programs. In addition, we have earmarked about $700,000 to train teachers in African American culture and linguistic patterns and hire mentors for students and community coordinators to engage parents in their children's schooling. (The district's Task Force on the Education of African American Students, which developed the program recommendations, does not use the word "ebonics.")

We intend to bring this approach into all preschools and elementary schools as part of a comprehensive literacy plan. This plan establishes an inclusive approach to language development and literacy, integrating bilingual strategies and the Standard English Proficiency program.

I firmly believe our educational system is on the verge of guaranteeing our students new promise and opportunity. For too long we have turned a blind eye to the vast difference between the promise and the reality of that opportunity. No longer can we look away. Our moral obligation is to act on the information we have to ensure that all of us, including our students with the greatest needs, develop the skill to cross the bridge into the 21st century.

Carolyn Getridge resigned last month as superintendent of Oakland, Calif., Unified Schools to become president of the Northern California region of Voyager Expanded Learning.

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