DATE: Saturday, October 25, 1997            TAG: 9710250374

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY PHILIP WALZER, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   96 lines

RACIAL EQUITY FOCUS OF BRAINSTORM SESSION EDUCATION FAIRNESS INCLUDES PUSHING, SUPPORTING STUDENTS.

No easy A's. More black history. No SAT cutoffs in college. More summer college programs for young teens.

The ideas poured forth Friday at the end of a two-day conference at Norfolk State University to help erase disparities between black and white students in education.

Speakers had already recited the gloomy data on black students both locally and nationally - higher proportions in special-ed classes and with discipline problems, lower proportions in gifted programs and college graduating classes.

Friday it was time for answers, and several participants spoke optimistically about redressing the seemingly intractable racial gaps.

``If we're serious about the problem, we can turn it around overnight,'' said Asa G. Hilliard, a professor of urban studies at Georgia State University.

Some suggestions Friday involved new programs. Some called for more research. Some demanded enlightened minds.

A big part of the answer, some educators said, is simply holding equal expectations for all students.

Kati Haycock, director of the Education Trust, a Washington group that studies schools, said staff members have been ``stunned'' at the watered-down standards they've seen at primarily black schools.

``At some urban schools, there are more coloring assignments than math and reading assignments,'' she said. ``We expect so little of these kids that we give them A's for work that would get C's and D's in the suburbs.''

``Our children are brilliant, whether we know it or not,'' said Carol F.S. Hardy, a Williamsburg education consultant and former administrator at the College of William and Mary. ``They can tell you what Michael Jordan's vertical leap is.

``Somehow we have done them a disservice by suggesting to them that instead of taking algebra or trigonometry or pre-calculus, they take consumer math.''

Both Hardy and Hilliard said it was also important to teach kids more about black history than slavery. ``If I cannot find out anything about who I am, I am vulnerable to all the stories: `You are from a people who never did anything,' '' Hilliard said.

He offered a tidbit from South Hampton Roads history that he said ought to be taught in schools: Sir Francis Drake brought to the Dismal Swamp black African pirates, whose descendants continued their warrior ways, attacking the British in the Revolutionary War, Hilliard said.

Several cited summer programs at colleges for young teen-agers as a way to cultivate an interest in higher learning.

James Madison University, for instance, holds a three-week summer session for black males across Virginia, starting in the ninth and 10th grades, said Byron S. Bullock, associate vice president for student affairs.

The sessions include academic classes in subjects such as math, writing and oral communications. ``African Americans need the opportunity to be in front of groups; that translates into leadership,'' Bullock said.

Workshops on subjects including AIDS and black-on-black crime; sports such as racquetball and volleyball; and service work in the community are also part of the program.

Of the 21 students from the first group who graduated from high school this year, 18 went to college - seven to JMU, Bullock said.

The summer programs also offer more incentive to study than regular classes, where maybe only three black students are in a pre-calculus class, Hardy said. ``Nobody wants to be a nerd,'' she said. ``But when they come together, learning takes place. They have cohorts.''

The programs don't necessarily have to occur during the summer.

In Georgia, a new program requires that every middle school student be taken to a college campus, said Joseph H. Silver Sr., vice president for academic affairs at Savannah State University. ``It's not just to say `Here are the buildings,' but to provide an interactive engagement with the students, to put college in their vocabulary.''

Among other ideas:

Starting church mentoring programs. At former Gov. A. Linwood Holton's church in Northern Virginia, parishioners decided to mentor 66 black youngsters in the District of Columbia. They met with the students at least once a week and promised to pay their tuition if the students went on to college.

Of those 66, one was murdered and another committed suicide, Holton said. But 38 enrolled in some form of higher education this fall. And the white churchgoers, he said, also learned a few things - ``you don't have to be afraid to go into black communities'' and ``all young people can learn.''

Avoiding standardized-test cutoffs. Hilliard said such minimums lock worthy students out of a bright future. And colleges with relaxed admission standards sometimes produce startling results.

At Xavier University of Louisiana, a historically black college with low SAT scores, the SAT-watchers would ``find too many that have the `wrong' aptitude,'' he said. Yet Xavier sends more blacks to medical school than almost any other college in the nation.

Seeking more role models. ``The only role models they can find are athletes,'' Hardy said, ``and athletes don't believe they can be role models. see teachers getting arrested for drugs, what does that say?'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]

MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN/The Virginian-Pilot

James Madison University official Byron S. Bullock talks Friday at

a conference on race in education held at Norfolk State University.

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