DURHAM, N.C.
In this city, now unfortunately famous for an elite university’s lacrosse team party that may or may not have gotten out of hand, sits two high schools under a judge’s threat of closure because not enough students appear to be on track to attend any college, much less Duke.
Wake County Superior Court Judge Howard Manning has his eye on 19 schools across North Carolina, including Durham’s Hillside High and Southern High. The schools wrapped up their academic years a few weeks ago, and Manning has said they ought to be shut down if 55 percent of students don’t pass the final exams.
Much of the debate around this issue has centered on underperforming Black students. Many experts on the issue have argued that it is almost impossible to boost academic results among those students without first addressing socioeconomic factors like hunger and unstable living situations are addressed.
It was those themes that were touched on repeatedly by scholars and higher education administrators during a June 16-17 symposium on Duke’s campus. Sponsored by Diverse: Issues In Higher Education magazine, the event celebrated the scholarship of 91-year-old historian Dr. John Hope Franklin. The overriding message of the conference, named after Franklin, was the need to find the next generation of Black thinkers.
Dr. Michael Nettles, senior vice president for policy evaluation and research at the Educational Testing Service, knows exactly where to find next batch of Black intellectuals; he says they’re in grade schools all over the country.
And as it pertains to socioeconomics, his research bears out that test scores of poor Black kids are nothing to sneeze at. These students are performing rather well, he said.
