We find very few people interested in educating the black community, black families, and black parents about the Common Core. So we’re partnering with schools and states to get the word out because we’re not talking about this in our community. We don’t have enough of these conversations.
The NAEP (National Assessment on Education Progress) report came out a few weeks ago, once again describing the large and persistent achievement gaps for black children. I didn’t see a black publication or a black news program talk about it. I didn’t hear about it on the Tom Joyner Show. We’ve got to get in this game and start talking about education reform in ways that lead to us having an impact on education for our children.
Our kids are at the bottom in every positive educational measurement and at the top in every negative one. Our numbers are bad. Less than 10 percent of black kids nationwide are college-ready according to the ACT 2013 test. It’s not acceptable to keep things as they are. We need transformational change and black people have to be involved in making it.
