Return-Path: <nifl-povracelit@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id h9UEbHV02284; Thu, 30 Oct 2003 09:37:17 -0500 (EST) Date: Thu, 30 Oct 2003 09:37:17 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <007501c39ef3$4e80eee0$8c28a5d1@air.org> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-povracelit@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-povracelit@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-povracelit@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: "Mary Ann Corley" <macorley1@earthlink.net> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-povracelit@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-POVRACELIT:1271] Education disparities 'worse than segregation' X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2800.1106 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; Status: RO Content-Length: 2834 Lines: 69 Education disparities 'worse than segregation' Vander Ark praised Wake schools for addressing diversity. By T. KEUNG HUI, Staff Writer The News & Observer Publishing Company. Friday, October 17, 2003 RALEIGH, N.C. -- The leader of a prominent philanthropic group on Thursday urged Wake County school and community leaders to ensure that minority students get a high-quality education and graduate from high school. Tom Vander Ark, executive director for education programs for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, urged the 600 participants at the Wake Education Partnership's annual meeting to work at improving the graduation rates for minority students. He implored educators not to have lower expectations for minority students, which he said leads to an inadequate education. "We're losing half the African-American and Hispanic students," Vander Ark said. "Think of what that means in a generation or two generations from now. We have rising incarceration rates, declining voting rates and stagnating family incomes. Do you think there is any link between that?" The Gates Foundation, created by the founder of Microsoft, has given millions of dollars to promote educational programs. In August, the foundation announced it will provide at least $11 million during the next five years for more than 40 small, innovative high schools in North Carolina. Vander Ark's warning about low graduation rates among minority students nationally is borne out locally a well. A recent Wake school system report found that only 53 percent of black male ninth-graders eventually graduated from high school. The speaker also was critical of schools in which many white students are in advanced classes, while minority students are in basic courses. Schools need to stop treating students differently based on their race, family income and where they live, Vander Ark said. "When you walk in the hallways of some high schools, you see something worse than segregation," he said. But Vander Ark, a former school superintendent in Washington state, also praised the Wake system for addressing issues of equity and diversity. Also on Thursday, the Wake Education Partnership, a nonprofit advocacy group for public education, announced winners of its annual awards. Jim Talton received the Friend of Education Award. He was cited for chairing a citizens advisory committee that helped build support for a successful school construction bond issue in 2000 and for leading another advisory committee that this year recommended significantly increased funding for the school system. Elinvar, a Raleigh staffing agency, received the Business Partner for Education Award in the Small Business category for addressing the needs of schools at the local, regional and statewide levels. The award in the Large Business category went to SAS.
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