North Highlands principal touches racial nerve at test-gap meeting

Principal Jana Fields thought she was doing a good thing for her school when she pulled African American students into a meeting last week to discuss upcoming standardized tests.

The school's African American parents, on the other hand, thought Fields was being racist when she told the children their past scores were lower than those of their white classmates.

Now Madison Elementary in North Highlands is confronting a dilemma spreading throughout California's public schools: How should educators close the racially marked gap in test scores?

Scores from standardized tests that students take each spring are reported in categories divided by race. Federal No Child Left Behind rules punish schools if one demographic group doesn't meet the same benchmarks as other groups. So it's no surprise that principals examine the performance of each ethnic group.

"I thought our kids should know … where they're scoring and that particular subgroups were scoring lower than other subgroups," said Fields, who is white.

"Unfortunately, the fourth- and fifth-grade kids didn't get it at all. They just heard, 'Ms. Fields doesn't think we're as smart because we're not scoring as high as other groups.' "

At Madison last year, state test results show that African Americans and Latinos scored lower than whites on standardized exams. In math, 32 percent of African Americans and 38 percent of Latinos tested proficient, while 50 percent of whites were at that level. In English, 30 percent of African American students and 29 percent of Latino children were proficient, while 40 percent of white kids hit that mark.

Fields said she wanted to talk to African American and Latino fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders to motivate them to do well on upcoming exams. She met with the African American students in the cafeteria Wednesday.

"The first thing I said was, 'How many of you consider yourselves smart?' " Fields said. "And I said, 'I think every one of you is smart. Every one of you can achieve, every one of you can do great on this test.' "

Then she talked to them about how each racial group at Madison had done and encouraged students to try their hardest.

Fields never met with Latino students because the first meeting drew such a negative response from African American parents. They were outraged when they heard about the talk from their children.

"To me that was outright blatant discrimination by race," said Marie Townsend, an African American mother whose daughter Mikalah attended the meeting. "If you have a group of students that are struggling, don't you think all the whites and Asians and Hispanics who are struggling would benefit from that assembly?"

Instead, Townsend said, by including only African American students, the principal was addressing a mix of high and low performers and hurting the children's self-esteem.

Civil rights lawyers agreed that it would be better for schools to address students by their performance levels, not by race.

"You're painting with too broad a stereotyping brush when you pull all the African Americans. … Some of those students may not have the lowest scores, and there may be other low scorers who are not in there," said John Affeldt, an attorney with Public Advocates, which works on civil rights issues in education. "You're sending the wrong message that they are, as a group, the problem."

Fields is not the first principal to give testing pep talks to students in groups separated by race. Several Elk Grove Unified schools have held similar meetings and plan more this spring, said spokeswoman Elizabeth Graswich.

A school in Concord took the same tack last year, drawing criticism from students and parents.

But some Southern California schools have held the racially separated meetings in ways that were very effective, said state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell. He described schools that involve parents in planning the meetings, and bring in role models of different races to address students.

Those schools "attribute some of their success to being able to help motivate these students," O'Connell said.

Fields said she has learned a lot from the response to her meeting with the African American students. For one, she said, the achievement gap may be too complex an issue to discuss with elementary-age children. And even if she did talk to student groups separated by race, Fields said she wishes she had involved parents from the start. She also would have brought in a motivational speaker.

The controversy has, however, brought some good news to the school, Fields said. Madison is starting a new partnership with 100 Black Men to mentor African American boys. Fields met with the local NAACP chapter Monday and said she will collaborate on a diversity training program.

She hopes to heal the rift with parents during a school meeting at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday. Fields plans to apologize to parents and solicit input on how to close the achievement gap.

"I learned a lot," Fields said. "I hope parents accept my apology and are willing to work together to see how we can do better."

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