Berkeley Unified School District educators devised an 18-month plan to close the gap between black and Latino students and their peers.
Wednesday night, the school board will find out how well it's working.
The plan "has held us accountable to take action to achieve the promise of the 2020 Vision," district spokesman Mark Coplan said in an email message,"the elimination of the racial predictability of our children’s achievement and health by the year 2020,"
The plan identifies strategic steps focused on five areas:
- Curriculum and instruction success
- Family/community engagement
- Cultural and linguistic relevance
- Generation and allocation of resources
A recently released state report on California schools shows that while the district's native Spanish speakers made steady progress from 2008 to 2011, black students lagged behind.
"It's not our English language learners who are at the bottom, it's our black students," and in particular, black male students, board vice president Leah Wilson said at last week's discussion of an English language learner master plan. "That is where the crisis is in our schools."
Wilson said the schools must recognize the "civil rights imperative" to concentrate on the group.
"There has been some improvement, but we have a long way to go," said board director Josh Daniels.
The BUSD Board of Education meets at 7 p.m. Wednesday, June 27 in the second floor chambers of the Maudelle Shirek building, 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. This item is scheduled for 8:15 p.m. The meeting is also broadcast on Berkeley Cable Channel 33 and it will be posted on Vimeo.com.
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