This past week, I had a great time in San Franscisco at the NSTA conference. I learned a great deal and met some amazing people. I was truly inspired by so many people dedicated to seeing that students master science concepts. The one "downer" of my trip was having to defend my research to one of my colleagues. Being an African American, I take the low levels of achievement that many African American students experience to heart and am committed to "finding a cure." Most people are intrigued by what I do now and plan to do in the future and enjoy hearing me talk about formative assessment practices of these students in classrooms (Don't laugh . .. most people really are interested) . This week, I felt as though I had to defend what I'm doing to a fello grad student who discounted my work by saying, the ideas you are planning are important to all kids . . . why do you keep focusing on African Americans?
Before getting quick tempered and saying something that I was sure to regret later, I reminded her that African Americans are at least 30 points behind everyone else in Math, Reading and Science and more African American men are in jail than in college. I'm sorry, but that's a sound for alarm in my book.
Her reply, "Is it really that bad?. . . . I think it's all traced back to the parents.
Is this what I have to look forward to?
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