THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, June 9, 1995 TAG: 9506090527
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY VANEE VINES, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: Short : 38 lines
A task force has urged the School Board to hire someone to monitor and help improve academic achievement among minority students and to craft a system for spotting ``at-risk'' students before they fall behind.
The Minority Achievement Task Force released its five-page report Thursday. It's the result of discussions that began last December, shortly after the School Board formed the panel of educators, students and city residents to study academic achievement among minority students and explore ways to help those seemingly trapped in school failure.
The report is merely a blueprint. Many of its recommendations - which cover broad areas such as teachers' expectations of minority students, parental involvement and teaching techniques - have long been embraced by parents, school critics and educators alike.
Milton Liverman, a task force member and district administrator who presented the report at Thursday's board meeting, said the changes would help children of all backgrounds and races achieve more in the classroom.
Joyce H. Trump, the district's next superintendent and a task force member, recently said that in her new job she would further investigate some of the report's ideas.
Former board member Mack Benn Jr. had called for the task force's creation, primarily in response to low numbers of black students enrolled in college-prep classes or on track to earn advanced diplomas in a school district whose student population is about 57 percent black.
The School Board, in response to one of the report's points, said it planned to create a standing Minority Achievement Advisory Committee now that the task force had completed its job. by CNB