CBP Community News NotesCBP Community News NotesCBP Community News NotesCBP Community News Notes
August 2009 August 2009 August 2009 August 2009,,,,
Page 2
PARENTS/GUARDIANS…PARENTS/GUARDIANS…PARENTS/GUARDIANS…PARENTS/GUARDIANS…
□
Do you think your child has been denied a meaningful education in Lower Merion?
□
Do you have questions or concerns about your child’s academic success or services?
□
Do you feel your child has been discriminated against by the LMSD
?
□
Is your child enrolled in middle school remedial courses or programs?
□
Have you requested an Independent Education Evaluation and been DENIED?
□
Is your high school student enrolled in low-level academic courses, or ones named active…, selected…, topics in… or fundamentals of…?
□
Are you struggling to get your child on the Honors level academic track?
□
Are your Lower Merion/Harriton HighSchool Alum succeeding in college?
□
Do you need an advocate?
If you answered YES to any of these questions orhave other questions, call the legal staff of the PublicInterest Law Center of Philadelphia (PILCOP), 215-627-7100. They are available to assist Lower Merion’sAfrican American families who question the qualityeducation their children receive from the Lower MerionSchool District, particularly if they’ve experienceddiscrimination, receive special education services, orneed a lawyer for a Due Process Hearing.
When challenged, you can win your child’s’ rights to a meaningful education
.
PILCOP has assembled a team of lawyers to assistparents/guardians in their quest to ensure that theirchildren receive an appropriate public education that ismeaningful and free of discrimination. All consultationsand legal services are confidential and FREE/Pro Bono.
PILCOP, 215- 627-7100 x229CONSULTATION & LEGAL SERVICES---FREE
□
Former Welsh Valley Principal Dr. Spenceappointed to address achievement gap, thru 2011.
□
Get LMSD PSSA info.www.paayp.emetric.net
□
Check eboards for summer reading/math packets.
□
CBP’s documentary film, The Main LineEducation Monologues: Dreams Deferred orRealized can be viewed on YouTube
□
Details on high school graduation exams, by 2015www.concernedblackparents.blogspot.org
ACADEMIC TR ACADEMIC TR ACADEMIC TR ACADEMIC TRACKING: ACKING: ACKING: ACKING:
Segregated access to knowledgSegregated access to knowledgSegregated access to knowledgSegregated access to knowledge…e…e…e…hurtshurtshurtshurts!!!!
Academic tracking is not just a canker sore in ourschools; it’s an educational system of segregation that’slike a “curable” cancer that if left unchecked leads to thedemise of vulnerable citizens—
our children
.The 21
st
century public education system’schallenges include closing the academic achievementgaps that persist between the races and classes. Schooladministrators, educators, and policy makers arescrambling all over the nation in an effort to fix the gapproblem and raise achievement as federally mandated bythe No Child Left Behind Act. Academic tracking is aninstitutionalized practice in U.S. public schools that is atleast a century old; dividing students into categories of “more able” or “less able” is used by schools tosegregate students into ability groups, instructionallevels, and classes. Segregated tracking underminesschool reform, yet is often ignored as a primarycomponent of academic achievement—for lack thereof---as the nation focuses on other perceived problems suchas teaching to the standardized tests, funding No ChildLeft Behind, and making Adequate Yearly Progress.
Tracking allocates the most valuable school experiences --including challenging and meaningful curriculum, engaginginstruction, and high teacher expectations -- to students who already have the greatest academic, economic, and social advantages, while students who face the greatest struggles in school and in life receive a more impoverished curriculum based on lower expectation placed on them by school staff. Anne Wheelock, Children’s Advocate
It’s an important reform matter because the 21
st
century post-industrialist “white-collar” economy doesnot need the larger “blue-collar--factory” labor pool of its predecessors. Today’s is a global world requiringhighly skilled workers. Tracking disqualifies a hugesegment of the population from becoming prepared totake advantage of future opportunities, particularlyAfrican Americans, Latinos, children with disabilitiesand those from low-income or immigrant families.
Is your child academically derailed?
Minority students and those from the lowest socio-economic groups have been found in disproportionatenumbers in lower level track courses, and children fromupper socioeconomic levels and Whites have been foundconsistently over represented in higher tracks. This is
Leave a Comment