School board takes aim at inequalties

The Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of Education sponsored its third annual Summit on Equity and Excellence on Saturday.

The summit addressed the differences in academic performance among ethnic groups.

This year's report's differences in the number of minorities having to re-test on end-of-grade tests and in performance on the Scholastic Aptitude Test are recent signs that have called attention to an achievement gap.

Neil Pedersen, district superintendent, gave a speech Saturday on problems in today's school system and outlined the district's approaches to dealing with them.

Problems included "re-segregation" - a situation in which students socialize only with others of their own race - unequal access to period zero early morning classes and an overabundance of white students in upper-level classes.

"Students can't learn when they're feeling racially isolated," he said.

The district's solutions have included creating equity teams in each school and clustering non-white students into classes together, rather than randomly dispersing them through all available sections of the course.

Many theories exist about the origins of the achievement gap. Pedersen said it is the product of a multitude of factors.

"I think no one really knows the cause of the gap, said Marny Ruben, assistant principal at Seawell Elementary School. "In our school, I think the gap is closing, but I still think we have a lot of work to do."

After the speeches, participants attended two of many smaller sessions. The sessions focused on a variety of topics, ranging from parent-teacher conferences to bullying and gangs to school nutrition.

Presenters included a police officer, a pastor, administrators, teachers and parents.

There were also booths from various local organizations providing information throughout the forum. The groups included Planned Parenthood of Central North Carolina, the YMCA, the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Pines of North Carolina Girl Scout Council, the Orange County Health Department and the Orange County Rape Crisis Center.

Parent Carleton Hilliard, who has four boys enrolled in the district, said he came for a variety of reasons and felt he had accomplished a lot in coming.

Hilliard said he especially liked the session on involving adult men in the education process.

Parent Froyd Nonaseo said he went by to get information on the school. He said that if there were another summit next year, he would attend.

Another parent, Adrianna Herrara, was at the school looking for information on the academically gifted program and for ideas for emphasizing math to her child.

Although Saturday was considered a success, most said there was still much to do.

"I believe we've made significant progress over the last 10 years but that we can't rest until the gap is completely closed," Pedersen said. "It really is a community effort that will help us achieve our goals."

Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.