School Board Approves Working Group to Accelerate Learning of African American Students

Here is the agenda for the January 9 School Board meeting. I'm thrilled to see that the board has approved the recommendation to create a working group to accelerate the learning of African American Students.

As mentioned in a previous post, the board discussed this working group at the December 12, 2012 meeting. Here are relevant video excerpts:

• Cathy Campbell, President of Berkeley Federation of Teachers, supports and makes suggestions for the working group
• The board discusses the proposed working group, approves the staff recommendation and requests an update at the January 9 meeting

I'm particularly excited that the working group will:

• Look closely at disaggregated data to see how African American students are doing based on gender, socio-economic status, students with disabilities and other sub-groups
• Examine how the programs that are already in place are working (such as Alive, Free and Educated and Cal Scholars) as well as looking at successful initiatives in other districts and states to see how these can be replicated (as discussed in my previous post about Bright Spots)
• Talk with students and families to gain their insights and perspectives 

 This is a very positive step in the right direction!