Oakland school officials drop ebonics references Associated Press OAKLAND, Calif.-The Oakland public schools African American Task Force has dropped all references to ebonies in a final report about improving education for black students. The district caused a national controversy four months ago when it suggested that ebonies, or black English, was a second language that is "genetically based." The final report, obtained by The Oakland Tribune, still emphasizes improving black students' language skills, but it makes no reference to ebonies. There is also no reference to black students speaking a separate language. And provisions suggesting the district pursue federal bilingual funding for black students, as it does for children who speak Spanish or Chinese at home, have been deleted. The U S. Department of Education quickly dismissed the latter idea when it was raised in December. Instead, the 17-page report calls for better language and reading programs, additional tests to measure the language skills of students who speak black English, and expansion of the Standard English Proficiency program. The task force says the district should aggressively recruit black teachers and offer help to black teachers who have not passed the state teaching exam. The task force also recommends hiring a coordinator specifically to improve the education of black students and a budget of nearly $2 million over five years to achieve the goals. The task force's work is an attempt to improve the dismal record of Oakland's black students. Black students, who represent 53 percent of the district, make up 71 percent of special education classes, 37 percent of gifted classes and 80 percent of suspensions. --end PGP encrypted mail PREFERRED (See MIT/BAL servers for my PK) PGP Fingerprint: FE 90 1A 95 9D EA 8D 61 81 2E CC A9 A4 4A FB A9 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Steve Schear (N7ZEZ) | Internet: azur@netcom.com 7075 West Gowan Road | Voice: 1-702-658-2654 Suite 2148 | Fax: 1-702-658-2673 Las Vegas, NV 89129 | --------------------------------------------------------------------- God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; The courage to change the things I can; The weapons that make the difference; And the wisdom to hide the bodies of the people that got in my way;-) "Surveilence is ultimately just another form of media, and thus, potential entertainment." --G. Beato "Without censorship, things can get terribly confused in the public mind." -General William Westmoreland