Parents Carmine Casa and Cheryl Anderson would like more results when it comes to tackling the academic achievement deficit for their school district’s minority students.

But the Elementary School District 102 parents are satisfied the process has begun.

District 102 parents and officials held the second Community Conversation on Race and Achievement April 24 for an update on how the district plans to close the academic gap existing between minority students and caucasian students.

The crowd, numbering about 100, was evenly split between Brookfield, La Grange and La Grange Park residents. All three communities are served by the district.

A series of initiatives developed by the Minority Achievement Steering Committee last year have been implemented as a first step in addressing the problem, which Superintendent Mark Van Clay said was born out by Illinois Standards Achievement Test scores. Those scores indicated a marked gap in achievement levels for African-American and Latino students.

“ISAT shows a significant and stunning gap,” Van Clay said. “What we are all saying is we can’t accept that. You just can’t pay lip service to that.”

One parent asked what the biggest obstacle was for minority students. Van Clay said he did not think there was jut one big obstacle.

“I think there is a variety of things. Part of what a child has to do when you’re in any school setting is they have to feel confident they can succeed,” Van Clay said. “They have to have some belief it’s going to work for them and they have a chance. And I think it’s a much more difficult situation for several of our children of color to feel that way. There’s a variety of reasons for that, but that’s one of the pieces that is essential here.”

To date the district has hired Bernadette Johnson, African-American liaison, and Vicki Cunningham, Latino liaison, to serve as outreach officers to their respective communities. The liaisons distribute communications in both English and Spanish, provide family conferences and implement early intervention contacts and support.

Another initiative was to provide a college experience for African-American and Latino students. On April 16, college professors visited the school to speak to seventh- and eighth-grade students and their parents about college and also to serve as symbols of what can be achieved with an education. A college fair was held at Lyons Township High School April 17. In May, eighth-graders will visit Elmhurst College to further spark an interest in attending college.

Other initiatives include after school homework help, the establishment of grade level teams and data review in all schools and an Response to Intervention plan has been submitted to the state.

Parent Maricela Zuniga of La Grange Park said she came to the meeting to get a better understanding of what the overall issues were. Her son, a seventh-grader, is an honor roll student.

“But that’s something we push,” Zuniga said. “I think that is our number one job as parents, to let them know what our expectations are, to give them goals we expect them to achieve.”

Casa, of La Grange Park, said while she was satisfied action has been taken, she would like to see a more deliberate and urgent response to the problem.

“I know this is a very sensitive topic of conversation and it would create sort of an adversarial position for many community members,” she said. “So I think it’s important that everyone become involved because the process is slower than I anticipated at this juncture, but I’m happy that there is ownership and shared responsibility. I’m satisfied that’s being accomplished.”
Anderson, of La Grange, said she was disappointed at the meeting turnout.

“I would like to see something happen right now because I still have children in this system that have there own personal issues that I fight for. But I am disappointed in the crowd, especially when we sent so much information out and tried to encourage parents to come out to hear what’s going on,” she said. “I did a lot of one-on-one, and the liaisons did excellent job, they made sure parents got the information.”