'Make schools fit kids,' candidates say

Institutional racism in Seattle schools contributes to poor performance by black and Hispanic students and to the gap between their academic achievement and that of white students, School Board candidates said last night at a public forum.

"The fundamental problem is the Seattle Public Schools were basically created for children like mine: white, middle-class kids," Brita Butler-Wall said.

Now that the 47,000 students in the district include children of many different racial and ethnic backgrounds, it's not surprising that model doesn't work, she said.

"We have to not make the kids fit the schools, but make the schools fit the kids," Butler-Wall said. A former linguistics professor, she said she wants the district to train more teachers in the language patterns of students who don't speak "standard English," including new immigrants and speakers of "ebonics," or black vernacular English.

(Note: Butler-Wall's views were misreported when this article was originally published.)

The forum, sponsored by the NAACP and other civil rights groups at the African-American Academy, drew two dozen voters and seven candidates in Tuesday's election, although Butler-Wall's District 3 opponent, incumbent Nancy Waldman, left early to honor a previous commitment. Before leaving, Waldman said closing the achievement gap is a "high, high priority."

Darlene Flynn, who is challenging District 2 incumbent Steve Brown, said an example of institutional racism is the failure of the district to raise an alarm over the near-total inability of black students to meet standards in math on the standardized Washington Assessment of Student Learning.

A black woman who is the only non-white candidate in the election, Flynn said that if white students recorded a similarly dismal performance, there would be an uproar.

Irene Stewart, opposing Betty Hoagland for the open seat in District 6, touted "cultural competency," meaning sensitivity by teachers to students' cultural differences, as one antidote to institutional racism.

Sally Soriano said the use of WASL scores to label racial blocs of students as failures also constituted institutional racism. Soriano, running against District 1 incumbent Barbara Peterson, called for curricula that address issues of racism, sexism and classism.

Peterson, who was said to have had car trouble, was the only no-show among the candidates.

Brown defended the district's record, pointing to consciousness-raising programs, training for teachers and performance evaluations that grade principals on closing the gap.

"Are we there yet? Not even close," Brown said. "But we've laid the foundation for getting there."

Hoagland appealed to the citizenry for help with district problems.

"School districts cannot do this alone," she said. "We have to involve the community. We have to say, 'We don't know it all. We need your help.' "

P-I reporter Gregory Roberts can be reached at 206-448-8022 or gregoryroberts@seattlepi.com

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